Recomend Me A Laptop

[MBOU]

Sorry Mac users but I can't stand them, all my family have been suckered in to buying a Mac and even if I had that sort of money... I certainly wouldnt be spending it on a Mac.

Basically, I am now weeks behind on my Open University course and have now foundout I can't actually complete the course because the stupid website wont work on anything smaller than a normal sized laptop.

I am using an Acer Aspire One netbook and I love it! I love being able to carry it around with all my books (even then its like carrying around a bag with two or three yellow pages in it... hence i wanted a small laptop)..

All I want is:

SIMPLE
Good memory (i have loads of music/audiobooks and photos)
Windows and IE
Small (physical size)
Cost absolute tops £400 (there goes a huge chunk of my new car fund which is also desperate)

I would dearly love to be able to install a game or two on it but tbh I never have time, all I use it for is coursework, browsing the net and using the OU website to do work and storing photos and music (though do technically have an external hard drive too).

I honestly don't want to have to rely on what some pipsqueak just out of school tells me would be great, right at the top of my budget just because he can.

Normally my dad has always bought me the computers i have had for a birthday or christmas present (or both as december and february are close enough for that ) or at very least help me... but since he has been brainwashed by apple... his answer is "well if you dont want a Mac.. you will just have to figure it out yourself". He works in the IT industry, he understands computers and all the technical bits I just dont understand and he cba to help

Please help.. i need a laptop like... tomorrow.

 

[Aquascaper]

I've had a few Toshiba Satellites and have never had any issues

 

[Proud Pastry]

I use a Vaio Sony lap top with an i5 possessor It's not too expensive and it has really nice specs. It also has one of the best monitors I've ever used. Honestly, the speakers aren't too good, but if you plug in headphones then that problem is gone
I use mine for Photoshop and school. I used to play games on it (works really well for casual games like LoL, but it's not so good with huge RPGs or MMORPGs like WoW, SWTOR, and Guild Wars 2, so much lag...) but then I got a gaming computer for my birthday

If you could find a used Vaio Sony for cheaper that'd be even better
I'd recommend this laptop to anyone in a heartbeat.
I'd also recommend Asus and HP laptops
I hope you find a laptop soon!

 

[printingray]

I'd also recommend Asus and HP laptops

I prefer HP laptops because of their rapidness and durability. They contains maximum features in all kind of models which give a better feel as compared to others. I always use HP laptop and upgrade it when the new model comes. I use it for my work and some entertainment. However, I don't use them for gaming because game spoils your machine. I have a desktop for this.

 

[dbanner]

I worked for currys/dixons superstore and the most popular for all round performance and a good price was HP and the Sony vaio.

Do you want another netbook (9-10inch screen) an ultrabook (13 inch screen) or a notebook (15inch+)

If you want it as small as poss then id recommend the Sony vaio ultrabook. It's a lot better spec than any netbooks but lacks the disc drive you'd get with a larger notebook.

Either way Sony or HP are the way to go. Some of the higher spec samsungs are good too and are within your budget.

 

[MBOU]

I need a notebook, realistically, the only reasons i'm needing to upgrade:

-The Open University is designed purely for laptops larger than netbooks, tablets or phones, screen res has to be minimum of 1024 x 749 (my netbook is tops of 1024 x 600). It means I cant view half the OU website and cant complete online tasks, tests, questionaires etc.

-I need a flipping disc drive! I could get an external one for £20 really... but what grief! And it adds up when considering i will then need to install the drivers and software to play the actual dvds... which the netbook just doesnt have the memory? to do!

-Need more storage space! Again... i have an external hard drive to back up my laptop so all my photos are on there but I just want them on my computer so i can mess around with them, likewise with my music.

I like the idea of the Sony Vaio, my dad has an old one actually, I was only using it earlier... but it is decrepid and only works if the laptop isnt moved at all and is plugged in at all times.

I will really struggle with a larger keypad and touch pad though, bummer! There is a PC world reasonably near to work and they are open until 8 so I should be able to get there soon.

EDIT: that said... a friend recomended Lenovo (think that was it) and looking at it... its looking the best so far (from the very little I understand about them!) but far more room to store my photos and music etc, £50 cheaper than the Sony Vaio equivalent that i could do less with... and if I can wait until the 26th, I can get windows 8 will be going to look at them in store and probably buy it elsewhere for less. PC world is never the cheapest option. Especially as I will need to buy Microsoft Office as well >.< forgot about that! Thats another £70-£100 depending on deals

 

[DrRob]

I was thinking of these, not forgetting quidco cashback from ebuyer.

lenovo


acer

 

[dbanner]

No your right, currys pc world isn't the cheapest but the benefit from buying from a store rather than online like eBay is that it's far easier to sort any problems with the laptop that you may have.

Lenovo laptops are OK but personally I would never get 1. They are very basic amongst the likes of Sony and so on.

For £399 you can get a Sony Vaio E Series which will have the disc drive you need, 15.5" screen, 4GB RAM which can be doubled to 8GB (but 4GB is enough in a laptop tbh), it also has a 500GB hard drive. It's dual core and runs at 2.30GHz which is good for a laptop of that price. Lenovos for the same price or similar will only be running around 2.20GHz or lower.

Having said that, the equivalent Lenovo from currys pc world (for £399) comes with 6GB RAM and a 1TB hard drive but as stated about it will be slower than the Sony and not as good built quality. Having worked with them every day id go with the Sony over Lenovo without a doubt

 

[MBOU]

I went into PC world and it was completely pointless they didnt even have have any laptops they had 6 oddones on display and a load out back that they werent allowed to put out until friday. Wouldnt mind but they had sold most of their display models, the shop looked like it had been raided!

That and the guy was all eye rolling and trying to make me feel like an idiot because I said NO i dont want a mac (about all they had) and no, i DEFINATELY dont want Norton! Norton caused me no end of problems for 10 years, it would have to have changed a huge ammount to make me use it again.

Looking at the laptops the *did* have,The Sony's were nice but out of my price range, toshiba looked pants... and the lenovo they had was unpriced but looked a gaming computer was nice though!

The only one I found with a decent keyboard was a HP Envy 6 Sleekbook(i think!?) and it was just right to rest my wrists on and with my short fingers, could use the keyboard!

HP ENVY 6 Sleekbook 1006sa... •Dual-Core AMD A6-4455M processor
•Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-bit
•Memory: 6GB
•Hard drive: 500GB
•Graphics: AMD Radeon™ HD 7500G

I dont know if i want to go back there or not and dont know if i want Windows 7 or 8 yet!

On a plus side though, the one good thing I found out was most of the laptops come with a 40 day(ish?) trial of Microsoft Office (the full version) and when the trials over, I'd still be left with Microsoft word and Excel that is perfect enough for what I need, I certainly dont need OneNote (i have it now i think and have never used it in 3 years) and definately have no use for PowerPoint either. So that could save me the £70-£100 I was going to have to use for Microsoft Office.

I could probably eek out about £440 ish but not the £500 for the Sony I liked im already over spending by all of that.

 

[dbanner]

How about the Samsung RV series? They are well equipped at reasonably prices...

I can completely understand what you mean by pc world not having much on display. That was the case a lot when I worked for them. It's either that they are just trying to sell off the old stock (display) ready for new models or they may be doing a new layout. Either way I didn't agree with it and think they could put out new as soon as they sell an older display laptop.

As for norton... Again I understand where your coming from. We ha a lot of people coming in explaining their problems with it. The newest version however is a vast improvement from previous versions. It no longer slows down your computer or has any of the old problems for that matter. Even so, I still rather use kaspersky or titanium over norton 360.

You may want to check about office... You do get a free version but it usually just gives you word and excel and it am doesn't last 40 days to start off. What usually happens is you will have a trail version of word and excel to access a maximum of 25 times... After this you won't be able to use office at all.. Not even the trail version. What it will do instead is ask for a product key which basically means you have to buy the full version at £100. Hence why most companies offer it at a discount price when purchased at the same time as the laptop

Was the £500 Sony you liked white in colour? If so then they should do a £400 version of it too. Basically the same laptops but you get 4GB RAM with the £400 version instead of 6GB and i think the hard drive is 500GB instead of 640.. Not really any other noticeable differences between the 2.

 

[tribalbrit]

I have a black one.